How to Get a Grand Teton Backcountry Permit
The Teton Crest Trail is 39 miles of high country strung along the spine of the range, and the Park Service says its camping zones are full almost every night from late July through early September. Everyone who has seen a photo of it wants the same few weeks.
Here is the part most people get wrong: there is no lottery. Grand Teton sells its advance permits first-come on a single January morning. And it sells only about a third of them that way. The other two thirds never go online at all. They are handed out in person, one day ahead, to whoever is standing at the permit desk.
So there are two very different ways in, and a third that most people never think about: the nights other people give back.
Grand Teton permit, in one breath
- Covers: every overnight stay in the backcountry of Grand Teton National Park and the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway, including the Teton Crest Trail, lakeshore sites, the Northern Canyons, and climbers’ bivy sites.
- Where: Recreation.gov, permit #4675342 (NPS backcountry camping permits).
- No lottery. Advance reservations for the May 1 to October 31, 2026 peak season opened January 7, 2026 at 8 a.m. MST, first-come.
- For 2027: Recreation.gov lists the next on-sale as January 11, 2027 at 8 a.m. MT, for stays May 1 to October 31, 2027.
- The split: about one third of permits are reservable in advance, plus all of the group sites. About two thirds are walk-up only, issued in person no sooner than one day before your start.
- What you reserve: a campsite or camping zone for each night, chained into one permit. Up to 10 consecutive nights on a permit.
- Cost: $20 per permit, non-refundable, plus $7 per person, per night, refundable until 5 days before your start date. Card only. No pass discounts, and the park entrance fee is separate.
- Group size: 1 to 6 people for an individual permit. Groups of 7 to 12 must camp in designated group sites.
- Stay limits: 2 nights per location (3 at Jackson Lake), no more than 10 nights between June 1 and Labor Day, and no more than 30 nights a year.
- Pickup: in person, no sooner than the day before, and by 10 a.m. on your first day, or the whole reservation is cancelled.
How the system actually works
Door 1: the January on-sale. There is one morning that matters. On January 7, 2026 at 8 a.m. MST, every advance-reservable night of the 2026 season went live on Recreation.gov at once, first-come. You can keep booking after that, right up to 2 days before a trip starts, but the popular Teton Crest Trail zones for late July and August do not last.
Before that morning: have a Recreation.gov account and know your login. Have your route mapped into specific zones and sites, night by night. And have a second and third version ready, because one taken night breaks the whole chain. The park also asks you to book only real plans. Permits are date specific, and you cannot change your start date once you’ve booked.
Door 2: the walk-up desk. About two thirds of the backcountry is held for walk-ups. You get them in person at the Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitor Center, the Colter Bay Visitor Center, or the Jenny Lake Ranger Station, on the day before your trip or the day of. Not by phone, not online.
In July and August the line forms early. The park says the average time people start lining up is 5 a.m. But the park is also unusually upbeat about your odds: if you are flexible on camps, direction and start day, it says it is unlikely you will walk away without a good itinerary. Recreation.gov even helps you scout: a “W” or a number in the availability grid means walk-up quota is still there for that site.
Door 3: the nights people give back. This is the one most people miss, and it’s covered next.
Off season: from November 1 to April 30, permits are issued by phone at 307-739-3309, and the permit is emailed to you.
Why Grand Teton nights come back
Two rules work together here.
First, the $7 nightly fee is refundable if you cancel 5 or more full days before your start. Cutting nights or people that far out refunds the difference too. The park designed it that way on purpose: in its own words, the refund “encourages users to be proactive in cancelling/modifying their permits, which will return campsites/zones to the quota for other users to reserve.” Only the $20 permit fee is lost.
Second, a Teton trip is a chain of nights. A Teton Crest Trail permit might be Granite Canyon, then Death Canyon Shelf, then Alaska Basin, then the South Fork of Cascade. If one zone on one night is full, the whole route is blocked, even with every other night open. And the moment someone cancels that one night, the route is bookable again.
When a reservation is cancelled or cut back, the park says those campsites and zones are “returned to the quota and made available to other users.” Changes made online can only draw on the advance third; the walk-up two thirds is in person only. Returned nights don’t land at a set hour. Watching a grid of zones against a grid of dates by hand, for weeks, is exactly the job people give up on.
That’s the problem BigDirtyHikes was built for: we watch your zones and start dates and alert you when your trip becomes bookable, including when the one missing night opens up. You book it yourself on Recreation.gov. We make sure you see it in time.
Want the Grand Teton dates that matter? We'll nudge you before the January on-sale so you're ready at 8 a.m., and email you when something about this permit changes.
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Want the night that unblocks your Teton Crest Trail? The nightly fee is refundable until five days out, and the park built it that way so people hand back nights they won't use. Those nights go back into the quota for others to reserve. BDH Pro watches your zones and start dates and alerts you when your chain is complete. You book it yourself on Recreation.gov.
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Didn’t get your itinerary? Here’s the play
1. Flip the direction. The park’s own first tip: “Many times just reversing the direction of the trip will make booking possible.” Walking the Teton Crest Trail north to south puts you in different zones on different nights.
2. Shift the start by a day. The whole chain moves with it. You can’t move a start date after booking, so try the alternate dates before you buy.
3. Go to the desk. Two thirds of the backcountry is only available this way. Show up when the office opens, one day before you want to start, with a few itineraries in mind. Be open to a different trailhead or starting the same day.
4. Don’t book a placeholder. The park says plainly that reserving sites “just to have SOMETHING” helps nobody. If your route isn’t there, keep watching for cancellations or plan on a walk-up and let a ranger build the trip with you.
5. Keep looking until 2 days out. Online booking stays open until 2 days before a start date. And the refund window is not the end of returns: the park notes people can still cut their trips after the 5-day mark to release nights for others, they just get no money back.
The mistakes that keep people out
- Waiting for a lottery that doesn’t exist. There is no application window. The advance permits go on sale first-come on one January morning, and the best Teton Crest Trail nights go first.
- Missing the 10 a.m. pickup. A reservation is not a permit. Pick it up in person by 10 a.m. on day one, or the entire reservation is cancelled with no refund. Running late? Call 307-739-3309 before 10 a.m. and leave a message if no one answers.
- Picking up too early. Pickup opens only the day before your start. You can’t collect it a week ahead on the way into town.
- Booking a second permit to stretch the trip. Make one reservation for all your consecutive nights. Buying a second one to extend a trip is not allowed and can cost you the first.
- Splitting a big group into one zone. Groups of 7 to 12 must use group sites. A large group may not split up into smaller permits and camp in the same zone.
- Forgetting the snow. Paintbrush Divide, Hurricane Pass and Static Peak Divide can hold steep snow well into July, and the park says an ice axe may be needed as late as August. The Teton Crest Trail crosses these passes. If you don’t have ice axe skills, plan for August or September, or pick an in-and-out canyon trip.
- Forgetting the bear canister. An approved canister is required unless your site has a bear box. The park loans them free with your permit.
2026 note: the Death Canyon Trailhead is closed for road construction this season, and the north side of the Taggart Trail is closed for rebuilding. Check the NPS backcountry permits page before you build a route around either one.
You’ve got the permit. Now build the pack.
The Tetons mean big climbs, cold nights in the high zones, afternoon storms, and in early summer an ice axe that has to come along. That’s what the BigDirtyHikes pack builder is for: build your Grand Teton pack, watch the weight climb as you add gear, and reuse a gear closet trip to trip. Every ounce counts on a route with 9,000 feet of up in it.
If you also chase permits in Colorado, the Rocky Mountain wilderness permit works the same basic way: no lottery, one on-sale morning, then cancellations.
Official sources (bookmark these)
Everything above is checked against these. If we ever disagree with them, they’re right and we’re wrong. Tell us and we’ll fix it.
- Recreation.gov permit #4675342. The permit. The on-sale date, fees, refund rules, and the 10 a.m. no-show rule.
- NPS: backcountry camping permits. The park’s own page, and the source for the one-third / two-thirds split, pickup offices, and stay limits.
- NPS: backcountry camping FAQs. How cancelled nights return to the quota, how walk-ups work, and what to do when your route is booked.
- NPS: backcountry routes and zones. The Teton Crest Trail and other suggested routes, with mileage, plus how camping zones work.
- NPS: know before you go. Snow on the passes, bears, water, and weather.
- NPS: backcountry and trail conditions. Check this before you go. Early-season permits mean nothing if the pass is still snow.
Why trust this guide
Untangling how Recreation.gov actually releases, holds, and returns permits is the whole of what we do here. If a date on this page is ever wrong, tell us and we’ll fix it fast. Accuracy is the entire point.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a lottery for Grand Teton backcountry permits? No. Advance permits go on sale first-come on Recreation.gov. For the 2026 season (May 1 to October 31) they opened January 7, 2026 at 8 a.m. MST. Recreation.gov lists the 2027 on-sale as January 11, 2027 at 8 a.m. MT.
Do I need a permit for the Teton Crest Trail? Yes, for any night you camp inside Grand Teton National Park. The trail’s camping zones are on the same backcountry permit as the rest of the park. Nights in national forest areas such as Alaska Basin still appear on your permit but are not charged the nightly fee.
How much does a Grand Teton backcountry permit cost? A $20 permit fee, which is non-refundable, plus $7 per person, per night. The nightly fee is refundable if you cancel 5 or more full days before your start date. Fees are paid by card, and no passes or discounts apply.
Can I get a Grand Teton permit without reserving in advance? Yes. About two thirds of permits are held for walk-ups at the park’s permit offices, issued in person no sooner than one day before your trip. In July and August people often start lining up around 5 a.m., but the park says flexible hikers rarely leave without an itinerary.
What happens if I don’t pick up my permit by 10 a.m.? Your whole reservation is cancelled as a no-show, with no refund. Pick it up in person the day before or by 10 a.m. on your start date, or call 307-739-3309 before then if you will be late.
Do cancelled Grand Teton permits come back? Yes. When a reservation is cancelled or cut back, those campsites and zones go back into the quota for others to reserve. Because the nightly fee is refundable until 5 days out, the park expects people to hand back nights they won’t use.